What happened to this 10-year-old?

Passersby find a traumatised mentally challenged minor girl on a Santacruz pavement; she was unable to recollect her last name

What happened to this 10-year-old?

Passersby find a traumatised mentally challenged minor girl on a Santacruz pavement; she was unable to recollect her last name

THIS MiD DAY reporter found a 10-year-old lying prostate on a deserted footpath, in a semi-conscious state, near the Juhu aerodrome in Santacruz (West) last afternoon.

Passersby and cops console the sobbing girl who found in Santacruz

Her dishevelled appearance, broken teeth, the permanent furrows on her forehead, all suggested that she had been the victim of severe mental trauma in the recent past.

Clad in a soiled beige kurta pyjama, she was in obvious mental distress, sobbing inconsolably, and asking repeatedly to be reunited with her family, pitifully repeating, "mala ithun gehun chala ghari" (Someone take me home)."

After witnesses revived her and fed her some water and snacks, she summoned up enough strength to speak a few sentences about herself.

Identifying herself as Purnima, the child, who appears to be suffering from some mental disability, said that she did not remember much about herself, apart from the fact that she was a resident of Vashi, where she lived with her grandmother and widowed mother.

When this correspondent tried to gently elicit information about the circumstances that led her to her present predicament, she said she drew a blank.

Her loud sobs frequently robbed her of her breath, and she repeatedly flailed her arms. Helpers could not elicit any more information from her, like her last name, or her address.

Witnesses who had gathered around her revealed that she had been noticed getting off a rickshaw earlier in the day, after which she had collapsed on the pavement.

This reporter summoned a policeman from a nearby beat chowki, and Purnima was driven to the Santacruz Police Station, where she was handed over to the officer on duty, PSI Bhaskar Pawar. A lady constable was summoned to take care of the child.

As cops contemplated handing her over to a childcare centre for temporary shelter, they managed to trace her mother in Vashi, and informed her that her child had been found.

At the time of going to press, the mother had been summoned to the police station. PSI Pawar said, "It is curious that Purnima's mother did not lodge any missing person's complaint for her daughter.

"We will ask her if she knows anything about the events that led her daughter to such a deplorable condition. I'm sure we will unearth more details."